Are College XC Courses Easier Than HS Courses?

I remember the MSU course being one of the fastest I ran on. XC course are all different. Most of the high school courses I ran on were fairly easy without many hills. I grew up in N. Illinois so not many hills to begin with. In college there were a few courses that were very challenging. Most the ones I ran were out east in the mountains. When my kids were in JH their courses were harder than anything I ran in HS. Just depends were they are at I guess.

Being 3-5K longer will make the college course more difficult even if it is flatter.

College XC courses are longer than HS courses.

Carl Spackler wrote:

College XC courses are longer than HS courses.

People tend to forget that.

funny because most colleges around here host hs meets or have hs teams use their courses to host meets. Thus hs and college courses are exactly the same in difficulty.

toomanyspikes wrote:

I have started to buy into the conclusion that collegiate XC courses are a lot easier than most high school XC courses. I raced at the MSU Spartan Invite (high school race) at a golf course in East Lansing and it was the easiest course I've ever run. Totally flat golf course. A lot of cross country courses in HS have at least some hills or are based in wooded parks with paths that aren't exactly the well-groomed green of golf courses. My question is, is this a general trend or just an exception? Do other high schools race on flat nice courses a lot? Are there some really tough college courses I don't know about? I didn't run in college so I wouldn't know. Discus

Look for some meets in West Virginia or southern Virginia.

Did you go to high school in a different region than college? Because where I am, the courses are generally similar.

Running Commenter wrote:

Carl Spackler wrote:

College XC courses are longer than HS courses.

People tend to forget that.

Well, try not to forget that the women's courses are the same and only 1k more during the championship season...

For our area in California, the championship HS courses are FAR more difficult than anything the colleges run on.

Frogtown

Willow Hills

Those places are rough.

So Cal has Mt. SAC

Stanford XC course used to be pretty tough when it went on the other side of the road. Some pretty big hills back there. Not so much now. I don't think the college course goes back to those hills anymore either.

My experience, college courses tend to have better footing and less hills. Most college courses I have ran on have been almost entirely flat. High school courses seemed to have a lot more hills and other features too them. I assume for a few reasons:

1.) More high school meets, and there are only so many places you can have "ideal" flat courses.

2.) High school meet organizers are more likely to make some "questionable" course decisions.

3.) It's easier to throw some hills and features in a 5K race, pretty brutal to do the same thing over 8K or 10K.

4.) High school is more likely to have some more fun with the courses.